On Thin Ice
by Blackfire 18
Summary: After the ice fortress incident The Truth Hurts Shego saves Drakken's life from drowning. They are back in their haunted lair and trying to regroup as well as fight an oncoming cold. Civil conversation through rather rash subjects ensue.


**On Thin Ice**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kim Possible or any of the characters within.**

"What is she doing, trying to make us dizzy?"

"No, worse!"

Shego knew this whole ice fortress plan was not going to work and that Drakken's meek attempt at making captives uncomfortable and thereby force them to talk by freezing their bums—was a horrible failure at best. She had tried to persuade Drakken to take another plan of action, but somehow he managed to slide under her arguments, convincing her that: "a snow fortress would be a nice change of scenery for an evil lair". Shego was regretting her submission to the mad doctor.

The ice below them gave a violent jerk in a cacophonic symphony of the deep voice of thick, breaking ice. A final jarring groan sounded hideously around them and she and the doctor were plunged into the freezing water.

Immediately, the breath was knocked out of Shego's lungs at the shock of the cold and her body was stunned into stillness. She furiously shook off the effects of shock and swam to the surface. She pressed on the circular cut block of the ice, but the block was too heavy and she had no leverage under the water to push any more forcefully. Instinct was beginning to take hold of her and though she fought the primitive urge, it was swiftly replacing linear thought. She frantically tore at the ice; plasma-lined hands clawing a path to the surface. After a full moment's worth of work and her lungs burning for air, Shego broke to the surface. Her mad instinct fell away and she breathed in deeply; forcing her tensed body to relax. She calmed herself and looked around the vicinity.

Where was Doctor D?

Shego's heart leapt into her throat as realization dawned on her. He was still under the ice. She quickly took a deep breath and dove back into the freezing water, searching madly for the doctor. He was nowhere to be found. Only Drew Lipsky was so blessed to have a negative buoyancy. Shego swore to herself and turned another full circle; this time noticing a faint outline of a body slowly sinking into the abyss of darkness some twenty feet below her. She hurried after the figure and snatched him up into her arms. She secured one arm around his chest beneath both arms, keeping at least one of her arms free. She took several powerful, controlled strokes to the surface. Upon reaching it, she swiftly hoisted herself from the frigid water and gripped the man under his arms, tugging him up onto the ice. He didn't move when she laid him down. Her eyebrows knit together in concern as she surveyed the blue man; bluer than usual. Shego knelt over the man and patted his cheek firmly.

"Doc."

He did not answer her. She patted harder.

"Doc!"

Shego yanked off one of the doctor's soaked gloves and checked for a pulse, it was there but very faint. She gritted her teeth. He was suffering cold shock.

_Dammit. This is bad. _

Shego quickly lifted the slacked body onto her shoulders in a fireman's hold and rushed to where she had had a jet posted by the lair's emergency exit. She ripped open the jet's door and laid the doctor onto the cold metal floor, hopped in, and slammed the door shut behind her. This would at least keep the biting wind from making the doctor's condition worsen. Shego removed her gloves and then stripped Drakken of his soaked gloves, boots and the majority of his lab coat, leaving his lower body covered. After having completed removal of his wet garments and tossing them aside, she quickly searched through the small cabinets and discovered a single towel and blanket. It wasn't nearly enough but these would have to do. Shego placed the towel over the blue man first, then the blanket, then herself. She had to restore some heat to the doctor and so she traded her warmth for his chill. Her own soaking clothes did nothing to improve her mood or take away the chill she could feel creeping through her own limbs.

"C'mon, Doc." Shego murmured to him, rubbing his arms with her bare hands, trying to create some friction to aid in warming the rigid doctor. "Stay with me." Her face was inches from his as her eyes continued to survey the blue man, her hot breath fanning over his face, coaxing him to life. "Stay with me."

They stayed that way for several minutes until Shego checked his pulse again. The raven-haired woman bit her lip; Drakken was still not responding to her aid. She sighed as she knew what she had to do, but she was hesitant to make action follow thought.

Shego ignited her hands, trying to keep the fire under her control so it did not burn too hot, and she placed her palms flat on Drakken's chest; still pressing her own body to his in effort to warm the still cold body of the doctor.

"C'mon, Doc…" Shego murmured to him again, increasing heat little by little until she lost her nerve lest she seriously injure him by her own hand, she checked his pulse again.

It was beginning to stabilize. He suddenly took a breath, a shallow rise of his chest and Shego lifted herself from him slightly, enough to ease his breathing. When he inhaled a few more times; Shego felt confident that he would be all right—for a little while at least.

Shego risked then to leave the doctor and pilot the jet back to their "haunted" lair, not thinking twice about a life that she had just saved. The engines roared to life, rubber wheels squealing over snow and ice, and they were airborne in mere moments; heading home at last.

* * *

Shego wasted no time in ordering any henchmen within earshot to build a fire in the hearth, handing the still limp form of Drakken to one henchmen and ordering him to get the doctor into some warm, dry clothes, as well as a final threat that she would not hesitate to kill any who stood before her and a hot shower. The henchmen immediately set to work and gave the irate woman plenty of berth to her own room and shower.

The drama of the day left Shego exhausted as she slammed her room door shut behind her and was finally able to strip from her own soaking jumpsuit and step into the shower. The hot water felt so good running over her body; she willed herself to forget the day's events and let her muscles slack under the constant, soothing pound of the water. Smiling absurdly to herself over the irony of the hot shower after she had already bathed in the chill.

Finally, her mind wandered to the doctor and she felt it best that she should check up on him. She finished her shower and toweled off, changing at last into dry clothing. She decided that she would don her thick, thermal jams, her favorite green robe and a blanket for good measure. Truth be told, she was beginning to grow uncomfortably warm. She gave her long, raven hair a good brush through and threw it over her shoulder; it was already beginning to dry.

Shego ventured from her room to find the doctor already dressed into his blue pajamas and robe, sitting in a red high-back chair before the fire. He seemed recovered enough, although he hugged his arms to himself and he still had a few tremors racking his body.

Wordlessly, Shego shrugged the blanket from her shoulders and placed it around the doctor, who, in surprise, mumbled his thanks.

"I'm going to make coffee. Latté?"

Drakken nodded. Shego made her way to the adjacent room and silently went about putting together the coffee maker (because she knew the one already set up had been drugged for one of Drakken's little "experiments"…) and flipping through cabinets to where the henchmen had last put the coffee grains. Having found it at last, Shego poured in enough grain to make two mugs of coffee. She gazed off into space as she waited for the concoction to finish its dripping. Once done she prepared two mugs and made her way back to where the doctor sat before the fire.

Shego silently handed one mug to Drakken which he accepted with mumbled thanks as he eyed his mug. She assured him it was "fresh". He nodded his assent and gave an apology for his current condition. She waved off his words as she slid into another chair opposite the blue man. They sat together in silence as they sipped their hot drinks. Shego was gazing distractedly into the fire, her hands cupped around her mug for warmth.

"Shego, why are you still here?"

Shego looked up at the doctor, startled by his inquiry. He had said it with such a melancholy and useless tone, Shego could only reply to him with a blank stare. Not hearing her response, Drakken gazed up at the woman miserably, sadly awaiting her answer. She dropped her gaze at his pitiful expression.

"Because I haven't finished my latté yet." She stated smoothly. To emphasize her point, she took another small sip of her coffee as she gazed back into the fire. Drakken's mouth hung open for a moment as he struggled for words.

"No…no th-that's not what I meant," he said with difficulty. "Shego," he began before she interjected.

"I know what you meant." She said quietly, her eyes closing briefly before she looked back to lock eyes with him. "Why are you asking me this?"

"Because…because…" Drakken lost his nerve and looked down into his mug of still steaming coffee. "It doesn't make sense."

Shego stared at the blue man, at a rare loss for words. She could grasp the gist of what he was getting at, but still she prompted him for what he meant precisely lest she make a considerable mistake of betraying herself.

"What doesn't make sense?" she asked him softly. His eyes never strayed from the coffee, as though it would give him all the answers he needed.

"Why you are still here; why you continue to work for me; why you persist to aid me in my plans at the risk of the both of our lives."

Shego stared at him for a long moment, gripping her mug more tightly than she would have liked. She had asked herself these questions before, but it had always been a mock trial. Somewhere in her mind she knew he would eventually ask her this and she would become busy with an errand or other with no time on generating a response. And now when he had finally asked her, she had no answer for him.

She stayed because she had no where else to go. She stayed because he allowed her the thrills of evil. She stayed because he needed her…and she needed him.

Of course, she would never admit to it.

"I stay because we work toward the same goal."

Drakken swallowed at her answer, at once accepting of it and not pleased by it.

"You answer so casually." Drakken said faintly, more to himself than to the woman that sat opposite him.

"What answer were you hoping for?" Shego asked blandly into her mug. Drakken only shook his head and ran one hand through his hair.

"I don't know."

Shego's anger flared, but she bit back a savage retort that danced on her tongue and forced herself to take another silent sip of coffee. The silence stretched for a few moments. Shego was beginning to feel uncomfortably warmer; maybe she had a cold coming on…Damn that ice fortress, she knew it was going to make her sick. She did not want to be involved in the fortress idea, but she had just used the past week for an unexpected-but-actually-planned vacation time. She sighed; why _did_ she press on with Drakken and his cockamamie schemes? Drakken's voice tore through her thoughts.

"Sometimes I wonder if I even have the capabilities to be truly evil."

Shego's eyes rolled upwards. Not this conversation again.

"So you've had some bad ideas in the past that blew up in your face. Others could have worked if they hadn't have been foiled so early in their creation."

"We could have made that ice fortress work!"

"Yeah, sure, before we were nearly killed out there today."

"That wasn't my fault!"

"It may as well have been!"

Shego had unconsciously lit her hands and Drakken immediately fell silent at the woman's outrage; fearing an attack was imminent on his behalf. While the mad doctor hated to admit it, she did have a point. Drakken relented to the debate. He sunk back into his chair

"You're right. I…I nearly had us killed. And to what end? We failed again to that blasted girl. All my plans come to naught. Almost drowned in that freezing water. Almost died of shock. I would have taken you down with me."

The day's events were finally catching up with Drakken. Shego let the fire in her hands die as she sensed a very different, but just as lethal shock begin to seize him. She placed her mug on the table between them. She took two strides to cross the length of the rug and knelt before the man, gripping his face in her hands.

"Listen to me." His wild eyes glanced from hers to a corner of the room then back again. "Look at me and listen," Shego demanded of the mad doctor. She didn't continue until she had his full attention. "We have survived and we can still move forward. We can advance toward our goal. We made a mistake in underestimating Possible, but now we can learn from that. We'll come back stronger, smarter, meaner."

Drakken stared at her forlornly; her words were either not quite comprehended or fell on deaf ears.

"Why did you save me?"

Shego was once again startled by his inquiry. She hesitated as her hands slipped from his face. This situation had to be handled delicately.

"I couldn't very well let you die, not without a proper trial at court anyway." She made a half-hearted attempt at a laugh which did not cheer the doctor.

"Why didn't you just let me drown under the ice? Let me finally be free of my misery…as well as yours."

"Now you're just being silly." She chided him.

"Am I, Shego? Or am I finally in the right state of mind?"

Drakken had suddenly become angry and moved forward in his chair so that his and Shego's faces were mere inches apart. The woman in turn, became immediately defensive, her own expression angered and her teeth bared.

"Yes," she snarled at him. Her words were curt and cutting. "You're acting childish. You made a miscalculation. Things are back in order now. Learn from it. Get over it."

Her words were a blow as hard as any physical blow she may have dealt him.

Drakken's face fell with each passing sentence. When she finished and he still said nothing; she huffed in rage and frustration. Her clawed hands ripped into the arms of the chair and her emerald eyes bore into the doctor's for an instant until she spun around and stormed away to her own room.

"Shego, wait!"

Drakken had caught Shego by the wrist and where she would have immediately attacked him, she paused when she caught sight of his expression.

"You are right, Shego. Pl-please forgive me." He stumbled over the polite words, since he rarely found need to use them. "I…I think I'm just shaken since…since this morning…"

Shego's hard expression softened somewhat; he had just had a near death experience, but he had had many such incidents. Why was this one so different?

Shego sighed and steered him back to his chair and once again took her position opposite him. They both took up their mugs once more.

"Why should this morning by any different than those explosions we seem to miraculously survive?"

Drakken tried to speak and failed. He tried again and failed. He had Shego's rapt attention now; whatever he was going to say next was very personal and had been locked away for years.

"It was how _he_ died." Drakken refused to meet Shego's gaze and his entire being seemed to sag under some unseen weight and the dark circles around his eyes glared angrily as he stared into the hearth. "It was how my father died. Drowned. On an expedition in the Arctic. I was very young when the incident occurred, and Mother did everything in her power to keep the truth from me. I was about twelve years old when I found out; I was angry and…hurt. I still don't know why he was out there in the first place. Every time that I ask about him, it would bring my mother to tears. I buried my rage and frustration in projects like machinery and chemicals which circled around dooms day devices. His death had pushed me into an abyss that I have never truly recovered from since." Drakken sighed helplessly.

Shego stared at him; mouth hanging open as she fumbled with the idea whether to abruptly change the subject or excuse herself from the entire matter. She came to realize she was on thin ice for the second time that day. She shifted uncomfortably in her chair. Shego had never been one for making apologies and felt extremely awkward when it came to a point where comfort was due. Shego resisted the urge to bolt then and there. Luckily, she was saved the choice.

"I'm sorry, Shego, I shouldn't layer you down with my own dilemma's. Forgive my relapse…I…I don't know what came over me."

Shego stared at the doctor once more, though this time with a decidedly softer gaze. She was working up a courage from her depths that she never opened to anyone, for any reason that withstood her cold logic, but just for this once…just this one time, she would offer her comfort.

Unfortunately at the moment she opened her mouth to speak, a terrific sneeze seized her and the sound exploded into the stillness; her entire body trembled in the sudden and unexpected effort. Her body had begun to tremor slightly and her forehead was hot. Shego swore loudly in her mind. Drakken was startled by such a sound and the noise seemed to arouse in him his own illness that he had easily ignored to his other troubles.

"Nevermind, Shego. I see that your valiant efforts in rescue today did not come without a price," and here Drakken sniffled a little himself, drawing the blanket Shego had drapped on him tighter about his body; "go rest now. You deserve it more than I."

She rose from where she sat and closed the distance between them. Softly placing a hand on his shoulder; she gave his shoulder the barest of squeezes and departed to her quarters.

Drakken reflected on the night's events and found it would take a decidedly long time to analyze the knot of emotions that had seized his unwitting stomach. Only after a few moments of attempted scrutiny and failure, did Drakken follow Shego's lead and retire to his own quarters, pondering if he had not only cracked through a few layers of his ice fortress as well as a certain co-worker who played the role of ice queen.

_Fini_

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**A/N: Wow, that was twice as long as I originally intended this story to be. I had the incident and a short conversation after that, not a whole blown out story on Drakken and arguments and apologies here and there! What happened?**

**At any rate, it is finished! And I apologize it some parts in the dialogue sound a little rushed or forced; I came to realize this would jeapordize one of the characters by putting them out of character…but what do we know what happens to these characters behind closed walls! I'm just being creative! Hehe!**

**Oh how a simple scene in "The Truth Hurts" can burst into a drawn out story at my finger tips! I love it!**

**Thank you to the reviewers of my previous Kim Possible stories who helped to make this story possible! Many thanks to PoisonousAngel, MatthewC, NAster, MalaV, NeptuneLily, ImpossibleGirl, Gulup, Tara, Elynsynos18, Lily, Poptartfrog, a, Go-Colts, charizardag, and Dinogaby.**

**As well as a special thanks to Flying Green Flamingo for the reviews AND favorites!**

**A loving regard to a certain _skinny-mini_ of deviantart, who was so very kind as to make a cover shot for "Seeking Shelter from the Rain" and thus inspire me to finish this work! **

**(I command you go and see it, I'll have a link up on my Main page...) Thanks skinny-mini!**

**Please Review!**

**Blackfire 18**


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